Dream Eyes

Elias felt himself turning red. He was no good at this sort of conversation. In his opinion, there were excellent reasons why someone had invented the words personal and private. But Willow was worried, and he would do anything for Willow, including embarrass himself.

“Looks like the two of you hit it off pretty good,” he said, going for casual.

“Gwen is . . . different,” Judson said.

“Yep, I can see that. I like her. She’s got claws. That’s a fine thing in a woman.”

“Oh, yeah,” Judson said. His mouth kicked up a little at the corner.

“About that mess on the island a while back—”

“What about it?”

“Sometimes things just go south, son. Nothin’ you can do about it. You just got to walk away from a situation that can’t be fixed.”

Judson’s eyes narrowed. He stopped smiling. “I know that, Dad.”

“Believe me, I understand exactly how it feels when a man you think you can trust turns out to be a genuine diamondback rattler. It happens. You’ve got to let it go and move on.”

Judson almost smiled again. “The way you’ve moved on past your issues with Hank Barrett?”

“Barrett’s different.”

“Yeah? How?”

“Mainly because the bastard’s still alive and kickin’. But in your case, Joe Spalding is dead and good riddance.”

“I agree with you.” Judson stopped talking.

Elias waited, not sure how to proceed. So much for the fatherly pep talk.

Judson turned his attention back to Gwen. “I’m not staying awake at night wondering why it took me so long to figure out that Spalding had become one of the bad guys.”

“Good,” Elias said. “That’s good.” He paused. “Then why the hell are you having trouble sleeping?”

“You ever had the feeling that you saw something important, something you really need to remember?”

Elias thought about it. “Not exactly, but I know what you mean. Where did you see this thing that you can’t remember?”

“First time I saw it was that day it all went to hell on the island.”

Elias squinted at him. “The first time?”

“Now I think I see it in my dreams.”

“I hear Gwen is good when it comes to figuring out dreams,” Elias said.

“She says I’d have to let her walk through my dreams before she could take a crack at trying to analyze them. The process, I think, is a form of hypnosis.”

Elias squinted at Gwen. She was animated and sparkling in the sunlight as she chatted with Nick.

“Strikes me that a man would have to be absolutely sure he could trust a woman all the way to hell and back before he let her put him into a trance,” Elias said.

“Yes,” Judson said. “But that’s not the hardest part.”

“What is the hardest part?”

“Gwen sees herself as a kind of healer,” Judson said.

Now, at last, I understand, Elias thought. “You don’t want her to see you as a man who might need a nurse.”

“No,” Judson said.

“Seems to me,” Elias said, “that a man who wants respect from a woman needs to show the lady that he respects her talents and abilities in return.”

* * *

“I KNOW IT’S none of my business, but I couldn’t help but notice that the door between your room and Coppersmith’s was unlocked from both sides,” Nick said. “Would that be for, ah, security purposes?”

“It would.” Gwen handed Nick the box lunch that she had asked the inn’s cook to prepare. “And you’re right, it’s none of your business. Here you go, road food and coffee.”

“Thanks.” Nick took the sack from her. “I appreciate this. I’ll be lucky if Wyatt Earp allows a pit stop along the way. For sure, there won’t be any restaurant breaks. The old man is obsessed with this damn rock.”

“Thanks for helping us check out the names on that list we gave you,” Gwen said.

“Yeah, sure, no problem,” Nick said. “The job sounds interesting. Something different.”

“Don’t tell me you’re getting bored with the hot books market. You’ve made a lot of money in that line.”

To her surprise, Nick shrugged. “The money’s good, but to tell you the truth, I’m not all that interested in the books or the wack-jobs who collect them. If you and Abby hadn’t convinced me to go into the business, I probably would have found another career.”

Gwen smiled. “International jewel thief?”

“We’ve all got a talent.”

“Given the nature of your talent, Abby and I thought you were better suited to the book business.”

Nick grinned. “You were just looking after me, trying to keep your brother out of jail.”

“That, too. Don’t get me wrong—it was wonderful to see you, Nick—but how in the world did you and Mr. Coppersmith end up driving down here together?”

“Abby introduced us yesterday when I went to the island to get my marching orders.”

“What marching orders?”

“Didn’t Abby tell you? No, she probably hasn’t had a chance. She asked me to walk her down the aisle.”

Gwen smiled. “Of course. No surprise there. You’re her brother.”

“Well, technically speaking, she does have a father.”

“Even if she had asked him to walk her down the aisle, I think the odds are good that he would have declined at the last minute due to some schedule conflict. I hear his latest divorce is not going well. Evidently, the most recent Mrs. Radwell is making things as difficult as possible, and word has it that the future Mrs. Radwell is getting impatient.”

Of the three of them, Abby was the only one who belonged to what—from the outside—passed for a real family. But appearances were deceiving, Gwen thought. Abby’s father, Dr. Brandon C. Radwell, was notoriously unreliable. Two-faced was another term that came to mind. Radwell was the author of the bestselling Families by Choice: A Guide to Creating the Modern Blended Family. The best that could be said about him, in Gwen’s and Nick’s opinion, was that the man practiced what he preached. Radwell was currently in the process of extricating himself from his third marriage. Wife Number Four was waiting in the wings. In the process of making and breaking families, Radwell had left Abby with a stepbrother and two half sisters. In spite of the charming family portrait on the back of Radwell’s book, Abby was not close to anyone in her legal family.

Gwen glanced toward the front of the SUV where Judson and his father were still deep in a quiet conversation. “One thing’s for sure, Abby is marrying into a real family. The Coppersmiths have wrapped themselves around her. She’s one of them now.”

Nick nodded. “Yeah, they’ll take good care of her.”

“And you do look fantastic in a tux.”

“Sure.” Nick winked. “But the really good news is that Girard, the wedding planner, is smokin’ hot.”

Gwen laughed. At the other end of the SUV, Judson and Elias broke off their conversation to look at her. Judson smiled as if seeing her laugh pleased him. Elias squinted a little against the sun and nodded once, to himself, as if whatever he had seen satisfied him. Then he took out a set of keys and tossed them to Nick.

“Time to hit the road, son,” Elias said. He yanked open the passenger-side door. “You drive. I’ll ride shotgun.”

Nick looked at Gwen. “The scary thing is that he means that part about the shotgun.”

* * *

GWEN STOOD WITH JUDSON and watched the big SUV pull out of the inn parking lot. She waved one last time to Nick and then turned to go back into the lobby.

“What’s next on our agenda?” she asked.

“Next, we start talking to the people who were most closely acquainted with Evelyn,” Judson said. “Got some